This weekend is going to be a huge Magical feast. For me, things kick off Friday at Richmond Comix’s FNM, where I’ll be giving my Standard decklist a final whirl and likely make a few last minute tweaks. Then Saturday we’ve got the first of ten (TEN!) StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Opens, kicking off right here in my hometown of Richmond. This is going to feel a little bit like Champs, Standard format with a brand new release added to the mix that’s threatening to shake up the metagame. While the safe bets still rest with Faeries, Boat Brew, Kithkin and Five-Color Control, there are going to be enough people wanting to play with new stuff from a set that is just chock full of “play me!” cards that I suspect to hear many bad beat stories from “good” players getting beat by random “bad decks.” Just imagine the instant exposure you’d get if you broke into the Top 16 with a really cool new Standard deck, with Kyoto and other StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Opens on the horizon… that’s a powerful motivator for all the mad scientist deckbuilders out there!
For those of you hoping to win the whole shebang, make sure you’ve got a winning plan against Five-Color Control, since the unofficial name for these events is The Chris Wolterek Down-Payment For A House Tournament Series. The man is a machine at these things, and you can bet he’ll be here rocking his Five-Color Control, and likely will be warming the seat across from you at the finals table. If you’re playing in the event, make sure to read his overview on the format this week.
Then on Sunday we’ve got a Qualifier for the most anticipated Pro Tour of the year, Honolulu, featuring the very cool and wide-open Extended format. Add a healthy dose of Limited and Constructed side events for those whose main tournament aspirations are cut short, and you’ve got a Magic weekend that’s probably going to feel like a mini-Pro Tour or Grand Prix.
Of course, everyone is focusing on the Spike elements of this weekend, myself included… but for those of you who aren’t interested in competing in these tournaments, there is still a good reason to come out to play:
Elder Dragon Highlander, baby!
As I mentioned last week, Star City is going to run EDH side events once the main event is in full swing, I’m guessing starting sometime around noon or 1pm. Now, my understanding is these events are going to be demand-driven, meaning that if you’re interested in some EDH you’ll want to go up to the side events table and let them know you want to sign up for EDH, and if someone else hasn’t already done it, they’ll start the sign-up sheet. When I talked with Pete about it during the prerelease, they’re going to run four-man pods, which seems like the perfect size for a reasonable time-frame since larger EDH games can tend to go on and on and on. In a four-man game, it’s easier to go on offense since you’re not leaving yourself potentially exposed to ten other players. You also don’t necessarily need some crazy-combo to win the table.
My vision is that enough people will be interested in EDH side events that, if you get eliminated from your first game, you can roll back up to the table, sign up for another pod, and shortly thereafter jump into another game.
I’m also guessing that Star City will be subscribing to the recently rolled-out “Open Play Rule,” as posted on the official rules page:
Open play EDH rules are used for games between opponents who do not routinely play together. Generals are not subject to the Legendary rule, although other creatures of the same name are; if a General and a non-General creature of the same name are in play, only the non-General is put into the graveyard by state-based effects. If two opponents in the same game have the same General and both are in play, neither is put into the graveyard (although other, non-General, versions are).
Not only am I hoping that casual players muster out to play some EDH, I’m also hoping some of you more competitive people bring an EDH deck with you too. What a perfect antidote to the sour taste you may be left with after things go horribly wrong in the main event, to play some casual, laid-back games! Uber-competitive Pro Pat Chapin recent sampled the format for the first time during the Conflux prerelease in Denver and came away hooked. Here’s a sample of what he said:
I have to be honest, I wrote the format off a little on account of just “how casual” it appears… However, I have to say that I was really surprised, and in a very good way.
I have played “Five Color” (the format) before, and never really got into it. Generally, when you have played one “big deck” casual format, you have played them all. However, Elder Dragon Highlander has a lot of interesting things going on.
First of all, the fact that you can have access to a legend of your choice over and over… adds an interesting dynamic to the game (and it’s great fun).
Second, the fact that your general determines your colors is pretty neat. For instance, Stu’s general is Vorosh, the Hunter. I must admit that I laughed at this when I first heard it. Why would you choose Vorosh? Well, he wanted to play Blue, Green, and Black, but didn’t want to mess his mana up to play Red and White. What better general can you think of?
Finally, it is just a lot of fun to be able to play with almost any card you want. It is very impressive that the architects of this format have managed to sculpt a format that allows for semi-competitive play that has a broader list of playables than I have ever seen in any format. There are so many old cards that I never get to play any more, but love. EDH is the perfect showcase. It is hard to make a truly degenerate deck, but you can do some really, really cool things in this format.
Seriously, take it from a hard core “Pro-Formats” kind of guy… this format is fun.
You may have heard of Wizards of the Coast’s Magic Director and former Pro Player, Aaron Forsythe. I interviewed him recently regarding EDH, and he said EDH “seems to solve a lot of the problems I had with multiplayer back in the day – turns took too long, decks were too degenerate, it was too easy to gang up on people – and adds a really cool flavor element to it as well. I had basically sworn off free-for-all multiplayer for a decade before I played EDH. On top of that, I love the deckbuilding challenges that the format’s rules create.”
One of the top competitive players in Virginia is a fellow named Kenny Mayer, a former Virginia State Champion and Pro Tour competitor; I’ve seen him around PTQs and Champs for several years, and he’s normally found perched at the top tables. Recently he expressed interest in EDH, and took a road trip down to Richmond Comix to play, and he had a really good time.
Okay, okay! you say… I give! I’ll try EDH… so what are the rules?
I’m glad you asked! To make it easy, I decided to provide you with links to EDH content that I find essential.
First is Official Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH) Rules page. If you only have time to go to one site, this is it. It gives you a run-down of rules and the latest, greatest banned list. Even veterans of the format should visit here often in order to make sure a card in their deck didn’t end up getting the boot (or, the joy of finding a favorite card recently un-banned).
The second indispensable site is the EDH Rules Forum. This has got a ton of great information, including Rules Announcements and Discussion, Strategy, Decklists, and Tournament Reports.
Over at Wizards of the Coast’s Magicthegathering.com, Kelly Digges wrote about EDH, giving a great EDH tournament report including lots of fun photos; also Chris Millar wrote about Commander, which is the Magic Online format inspired by EDH.
Here, The Aardvark does a nice job laying out EDH deckbuilding fundamentals, and walks through the thought-process behind building a Savra, Queen of the Golgari EDH deck.
[author name="Sheldon Menery"]Sheldon Menery[/author], the godfather of EDH, did a Feature Friday in 2004 that first really shined a spotlight on the format. The rules have changed some since then, but it’s still a good read. Sheldon also wrote a great EDH tournament report.
And of course, if you aren’t a regular reader you can browse my article archives because I touch on the format quite frequently.
I hope that I’ve convinced some of you to bring an EDH deck this weekend to give the format a try, or perhaps if you hadn’t planned on playing in the tournaments you’ll grab your favorite EDH deck and come to the Richmond Convention Center and play a few games. For those of you that do, I’d love to hear from you – drop me an email and let me know what general you picked, how you did, any cool plays you remember, and what you think of the format.
So what decks will I be rocking this weekend in Standard, Extended, and EDH? That’s still a bit in flux, so I’ll just hold off until after the tournament, where I’ll bring you a rundown of what I played, how I did, and lots of pictures of players and playas from this fantastic Magic weekend!
EDH Toolbox Recommendation for the Week: Dragon Arch
I figured I’d wrap this up with an EDH Toolbox card everyone should have in his or her collection, a nice little uncommon artifact called Dragon Arch from Apocalypse. Between Shadowmoor, Eventide, Shards of Alara, and especially now in Conflux, everyone is flush with cool multicolor creatures you want to play in your EDH deck. At the time it was printed, Dragon Arch was clearly designed to “cheat in” Invasion’s multicolored Dragons (though you’re technically paying seven mana to put the first one into play), along with other gigantic gold beasties that would otherwise be problematic to cast. Recently there are plenty of good gold creatures that don’t cost so much mana, and plenty of uncommon and common tools available to generate whatever color mana you need without needing to request a federal bailout to finance a mess of rare dual lands. So why bother with an investment card like Dragon Arch, that doesn’t do anything on its own and costs seven mana for its first effect?
It’s all about instant speed.
Say you’ve got a Rosheen Meanderer in hand and a Hurricane you’re just itching to cast because it’s going to kill several other players on the board. Hard-casting Rosheen will likely cause those players’ Spidey senses to go into overdrive, and by the time Ms. Rosheen is no longer summoning sick you may very well find your life total too low to rock that Hurricane. Now all you’ve got is an oversized Hill Giant. Dragon Arch allows you to tap into that instant-speed sweet spot, holding a spell until the very last possible moment. In this case, during the opponent sitting to your right’s end step. Sure, players might respond by unleashing burn at your dome or creature removal at Rosheen, but at least you’re not having to endure four or five combat steps and sorcery-speed removal too.
So, not only does Dragon Arch help your critical monsters to survive long enough to be relevant, but you can also take advantage of creatures with comes-into-play effects that are clearly meant to be sorcery-speed, such as Realm Razer.
My favorite play though has got to be activating a Dragon Arch and dropping a Meglonoth on somebody’s head after they announce attackers, especially if I’ve also got something like High Ground in play, or maybe a Yare in hand…
As I finish this up, I see that Star City’s inventory of Dragon Arches is empty! I’m not sure whether this is temporary, or whether this is a card that casual fans constantly snap up, but it’s totally worth clicking on the “notify me when in stock” button to grab you one. Heck, anyone who’s been playing Magic since Apocalypse likely has quite a few of them gathering dust in the bottom of their closet; EDH decks only need one copy, so trade ‘em to your friends or sell them to Star City for some easy cash!
Hope to see many of you this weekend… wish me luck!
Bennie
starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com
What I’m Listening to:
She Bangs the Drums, by The Stone Roses
Freedom, by Tegan and Sara
If I Didn’t Love You, by Squeeze
Madame Bosso, by Feufollet
Black & White, by Three Dog Night